The independent
To uncover
newspaper serving
the truth
Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s
and report
and holy cross
it accurately
Volume 57, Issue 57 | MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2023 | ndsmcobserver.com
Santos selected commencement speaker Fr. Jenkins announces Juan Manuel Santos as principal speaker at 2023 commencement ceremony Observer Staff Report
In a statement released Monday morning, Notre Dame president Fr. John Jenkins announced former Colombian president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Juan Manuel Santos as the principal speaker at the University’s commencement ceremony on May 21. Santos, who served as president of Colombia from 2010 to 2018, was the sole recipient of the distinguished award in 2016 for his role in ending Colombia’s 52-year-long civil war, the longest armed conflict in the Western Hemisphere. “President Santos honored us with his presence on campus last fall as a distinguished policy fellow in our Keough School of Global Affairs, and we look
Courtesy of Jfbeltranr
Monday morning, University President Fr. John Jenkins announced Juan Manuel Santos as the 2023 commencement ceremony speaker. He is the former Columbian president and a Nobel Peace Prize recipient.
Trans students can opt for Fischer By ISA SHEIKH Associate News Editor
The apartments at Fischer Graduate Residences have served as an residential option for transgender students, associate vice president for residential life Heather Rakoczy Russell told The Observer in an interview. Transgender students could be assigned to a dorm aligned with their assigned sex at birth, move off campus or “they have the option to live at Fischer Graduate residences, with or without a roommate,” Russell said. The interview came ahead of the University’s announcement that it would be establishing the undergraduate community at Fischer (UCF), billed as a “new residential community for undergraduate women and men, opening in Fall 2023” in a Feb. 1 announcement. The UCF will house 80 students in the on-campus two-resident apartments with private bedrooms. Discussing how the University has approached transgender or gender nonconforming applicants, vice
NEWS PAGE 2
forward to welcoming him back in May,” Jenkins said in the release. “His courageous leadership and resolute commitment ended a half-century-long civil war and put his nation on a path to peace and prosperity.” In September, Santos delivered the 29th annual Hesburgh Lecture in Ethics and Public Policy, discussing peacebuilding. His ties to Notre Dame go back further. “President Santos’ relationship with Notre Dame began in 2012, when he turned to Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies for insight and assistance as he began exploratory talks with the FARC [Revolutionary Armed Forces of see SANTOS PAGE 4
CSC unveils Pokagon art
president for undergraduate enrollment Micki Kidder explained that the Notre Dame supplement to the Common App now includes a question about sex at birth. Russell discussed how residential life has approached these issues, mentioning how most transgender first-years choose to live in an on-campus dorm as opposed to the other two options. “Most of our students in their first year, transgender students, have chosen to be in a residence hall, and we handpick the residence hall based on what we know to be not only a welcoming community… As part of a major renovation or new construction, we have a single user bathroom with a shower near or in a residential section, so that lends itself to more privacy and a more comfortable environment,” she explained. In an email, Russell discussed the future of undergrads at Fischer. “To echo what Dan Rohmiller, director of residential life for housing operations, provided
Art pieces created by the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi now hang as a collection on the walls of Geddes Hall coffee house. The installation is part of the Center for Social Concerns’ Arts of Dignity series.
see FISCHER PAGE 4
see POKAGON PAGE 4
SCENE PAGE 5
Kate Kirwan | The Observer
By KATE KIRWAN News Writer
This past Thursday, Notre Dame students, South Bend communit y members and tribe members of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, filled Geddes Hall coffee house, gathering to celebrate the unveiling of the permanent installation of the Pokagon art collection. The installation is a part of the Center for Social Concerns’s A rts of Dignit y
VIEWPOINT PAGE 6
series and features 18 different art pieces placed around Geddes Hall. The pieces were crafted by five local artists from the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi including Jamie Chapman, Kathy Gertz Fodness, John Fox, Dav id Martin and Jason Wesaw. Michael Hebbeler, a managing director at the Center for Social Concerns, opened by describing the intention of the art installation. “The art on the walls and in the back shelves is
an inv itation to acknowledge, engage and learn from the Pokagon Band and Potawatomi — a communit y rich in resilience, beaut y and in relationship w ith the land and each other,” Hebbeler said. Demonstrating this communal relationship the Pokagon Band have w ith each other and the land, the tribe’s Elders Representative, Barbara Ann Martin, offered a
W BASKETBALL PAGE 12
HOCKEY PAGE 12